Top Law Schools

I am in my first year on a scholarship in a Southern top 50 school. I would like to practice law in the Midwest. I am looking to do IP most likely but not for sure . . . .

Here are my options:
1. I have already quit my job and started law school. I have an apt, and have already taken out loans and bought all my books (and highlighted them all over - no returning them now lol). I should stay, finish my law degree and take the bar. It will be more difficult, but then work towards getting a job in the Midwest in IP.

2. Quit school now, and defer my fall 2011 application and start my 1L year again next year at a Midwest school. I received a scholarship last year, but there is no guarantee, just a hopeful possibility, that I will get this scholarship again for next fall. Find a job in the meantime (this will be difficult, but possible i hope) and work until next fall. Lose any funds already paid including books, apt rental, insurance, missed salary from quitting my job, etc. to start all over again next year.

What do you think? I was originally just planning on transferring after my 1L year, but it appears there are no scholarships if I do it this way . . . . darn it.

By the way, I am just concerned about the Midwest job opportunities . . .

What led you to choose SMU over a full tuition scholarship at a better school in the region where you want to practice?

Stay at SMU.

Bildungsroman wrote:What led you to choose SMU over a full tuition scholarship at a better school in the region where you want to practice?

Also why did you later hope to transfer to that better school.

Both schools place more or less the same to NALP firms (Wash - 27%; SMU - 23%) so I don't think your job chances go up enough to justify transferring just based off of school ranking.

Certainly I would think that Wash U would place better in the midwest than SMU but from what I've gathered, good grades and strong ties to an area work almost as well.

With your engineering background, if you pass the patent bar you can make yourself infinitely more marketable. IP seems to be able to write their ticket as long as they have decent grades.

But besides all of that, if you don't like SMU, don't stay. 1L year sucks and if you already don't like it now before school picks up, it's going to be a miserable year.

OP wrote above that he likes SMU.

fathergoose wrote:Both schools place more or less the same to NALP firms (Wash - 27%; SMU - 23%) so I don't think your job chances go up enough to justify transferring just based off of school ranking.

Certainly I would think that Wash U would place better in the midwest than SMU but from what I've gathered, good grades and strong ties to an area work almost as well.

With your engineering background, if you pass the patent bar you can make yourself infinitely more marketable. IP seems to be able to write their ticket as long as they have decent grades.

But besides all of that, if you don't like SMU, don't stay. 1L year sucks and if you already don't like it now before school picks up, it's going to be a miserable year.

Dude is gonna have some tough questions to answer about why he went to SMU and not Woostle if he interviews in the Midwest.

Full tuition scholarship.

CanadianWolf wrote:OP wrote above that he likes SMU.

Then I'm very confused. OP is at a law school that he likes, on a full scholarship, but he wants to take a year off and transfer to a law school with equivalent job prospects and maybe not a full scholarship?

Why didn't you just go to WashU to begin with? SMU doesn't really have much reach into Chicago.

CanadianWolf wrote:Full tuition scholarship.

He also got one from WashU tho...

I wasn't sure where I wanted to practice at the time (TX or IL) so I chose the option with the least debt (I could live at home at SMU . . . ). Now I've decided I definitely am headed back to the Midwest as soon as I can.

Maybe the best way to do this is to stay at SMU and just work on passing the patent bar as soon as I can - - would this be the best option?